Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4
RIR Principles
On 16 May 2013 the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) accepted "ARIN-prop-187
RIR Principles" as a Draft Policy.
Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4 is below and can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2013_4.html
You are encouraged to discuss the merits and your concerns of Draft
Policy 2013-4 on the Public Policy Mailing List. 2013-4 will also be on
the agenda at the upcoming ARIN Public Policy Consultation at NANOG 58
in New Orleans.
The AC will evaluate the discussion in order to assess the conformance
of this draft policy with ARIN's Principles of Internet Number Resource
Policy as stated in the PDP. Specifically, these principles are:
* Enabling Fair and Impartial Number Resource Administration
* Technically Sound
* Supported by the Community
The ARIN Policy Development Process (PDP) can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html
Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/index.html
Regards,
Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
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Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4
RIR Principles
Date: 17 May 2013
Problem Statement:
The original text in RFC 2050 both "describes the registry system for
the distribution of globally unique Internet address space and registry
operations" and provides "rules and guidelines [principles] governing
the distribution of this address space."
The currently proposed update (RFC2050bis) "provides information about
the current Internet Numbers Registry System used in the distribution of
globally unique Internet Protocol (IP) address space and autonomous
system (AS) numbers" and "provides information about the processes for
further evolution of the Internet Numbers Registry System."
This means that the guiding principles of stewardship are not currently
being carried forward into the new document. The goals of Conservation
(efficient utilization based on need), Routability (hierarchical
aggregation), and Registration (uniqueness) are as important, if not
more so, now that the transition to IPv6 is upon us. This can be
rectified by documenting these principles in RIR policy.
Policy Statement:
Section 0: Principles and Goals of the Internet Registry System
0.1. Efficient utilization based on need (Conservation)
Policies for managing Internet number resources must support fair
distribution of globally unique Internet address space according to the
operational needs of the end-users and Internet Service Providers
operating networks using this address space. The registry should prevent
stockpiling in order to maximize the conservation and efficient
utilization of the Internet address space.
0.1.1. Documented Justified Need (Needs Based)
Assignment of Internet number resources is based on documented
operational need. Utilization rate of address space will be a key factor
in number resource assignment. To this end, registrants should have
documented justified need available for each assignment. Organizations
will be assigned resources based on immediate utilization plus expected
utilization.
In order to promote increased usage of Internet number resources,
resource holders will be required to provide an accounting of resources
currently held demonstrating efficient utilization. Internet number
resources are valid as long as the criteria continues to be met. The
transfer of Internet number resources from one party to another must be
approved by the regional registries. The party trying to obtain the
resources must meet the same criteria as if they were requesting
resources directly from the IR.
All Internet number resource requests are subject to audit and
verification by any means deemed appropriate by the regional registry.
0.2. Hierarchical aggregation (Routability)
Policies for managing Internet number resources must support
distribution of globally unique Internet addresses in a hierarchical
manner, permitting the routing scalability of the addresses. This
scalability is necessary to ensure proper operation of Internet routing,
although it must be stressed that routability is in no way guaranteed
with the allocation or assignment of IPv4 addresses.
0.3. Uniqueness (Registration)
Provision of a public registry documenting Internet number resource
allocation, reallocation, assignment, and reassignment is necessary to:
a) ensure uniqueness and to to provide operational staff with
information on who is using the number resource b) to provide a contact
in case of operational/security problems (e.g. Law Enforcement) c) to
ensure that a provider has exhausted a majority of its current CIDR
allocation, thereby justifying an additional allocation d) to assist in
IP allocation studies.
It is imperative that reassignment information be submitted in a prompt
and efficient manner to facilitate database maintenance and ensure
database integrity.
0.4. Stewardship
It should be noted that efficient utilization and hierarchical
aggregation are often conflicting goals. All the above goals may
sometimes be in conflict with the interests of individual end-users or
Internet Service Providers. Care must be taken to ensure balance with
these conflicting goals given the resource availability, relative size
of the resource, and number resource specific technical dynamics, for
each type of number resource. For example, efficient utilization becomes
a more prominent issue than aggregation as the IPv4 free pool depletes
and IPv4 resource availability in any transfer market decreases.
Conversely, because the IPv6 number space is orders of magnitude larger
than the IPv4 number space, the scale tips away from efficient
utilization towards hierarchical aggregation for IPv6 number resources.
Comments:
a. Timetable for implementation: immediately
b. I believe that it would be beneficial for IANA to adopt these
principles as well, and encourage the community to consider a global
policy proposal.